I got a bogus email from someone claiming to be AOL Billing. I knew it looked funny. Before I even tried clicking on the link. I tried to go to billing Live Help but my "live help" hasn't worked in about 6 months.
So then I called AOL. Got India. I have no idea what the guy said. Something that if the email said something was wrong with my card I need to do ......something. Couldn't understand him. He said something else and I finally told him that I couldn't understand him and hung up.
I then called VISA. They assured me nothing is wrong with my card and in fact they had already paid AOL for that November bill that the email said wasn't being paid.
Here is a copy of the email I received. I have highlighted it in orange:
Dear Member:
Thank you for choosing America Online. Unfortunately there has been a problem processing your billing information for the month of November, 2004. Please review our billing requirements at Keyword: Billing. You will be able to update your billing information quickly and easily using our secure server webform. Please understand that without promptly updating your billing information, your America Online Internet service will be discontinued. To update your billing at this time, please visit our secure server webform by clicking the link below: (link here was deleted by me)America Online Billing Services. We appreciate your business and hope to keep you as a valued customer. America Online is so easy, no wonder it's number 1! Reguards, Thomas McKenely AOL Processesing Center AOL Billing Services
P.s. that link again is (link deleted by me). © 2004 America Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
I have disabled the links it gave. If you want to see where I was sent I will be glad to give it to you. I did not want to put the information here in case someone misunderstood and went to fill out the form.
Also, you couldn't tell it when you first saw the email in your box but after opening it you could see the return address: AOLAccountHelp@lost-hope.info Read that very carefully.
please forward these emails to AOL at: tosreports@aol.com
you can also read about this in other journal. click here to go there
18 comments:
That happened to me a few years ago. I believed what they said and gave a credit card number. Then checked a few days later to see about my account if it was still open because they said the old account was closed. They said they didn't send an email to me and that if i gave any personal information that I needed to cancel the credit card. It took me a few months to get it all taken care of because someone stole the credit card number and was using it. What a mess.
Love,
Kat
I get one of those almost every month. I knew it was bogus because of several things. 1. It does not have the offical mail symbol in front of it under TYPE column. 2. I am not the account holder so the mail would have never been sent to me!
Never click the link in a letter like that. Use the link you have in your favorites or taskbar.
Sorry this happened to you, thanks for the info.
yes we sure got to be careful. Thaks for alerting everyone
I got one of those this afternoon and called AOL about it. I knew it looked funny too, but checked anyway. It's good that we're careful. Hugs. *Barb*
My Blue Faerie comes throuth yet again! I opened it, and saved to deal with later. I wouldn't have caught it if you hadn't brought this to my attention. Thanks bebe'.
xoxoxo
I got the same email. I sent it to tosspam but now I recent to the address you gave. Thanks. No, I didn't click on the links. I too went to my own billing account and saw it was fine. I never can imagine why there are so many loons on the Internet who have nothing better to do than annoy people.
Angela
And you'd think the hoaxer would have done a spell check to pick up 'reguards' and 'processesing'. I'll be on the lookout. Thanks for the info.
The bit that really made me laugh out loud was when you said you got India. I thought it was only AOLUK that was 'outsourcing' customer and technical support to the far east. I was on the phone to them one day and the guy had no idea what I was talking about, nor did he have any idea where I lived in relation to other places in the UK. I think it's appalling.
But thanks for the heads up on the bogus email. It seems fraudsters are going the extra mile these days in an attempt to get their paws on our money!
BGM
I am glad we are getting the word out quickly. I can't imagine how it would feel to get sucked into this and give out some financial information. Here's another example of how great J-Land is! Thanks for posted the info about the scum ball!
oh .. your live help died eh? ;-)
i got that email too .. ever since the ebay scam i always double check the links
whenever i get india on the phone for support i keep pushing 3 on the dial .. when they ask what i'm doing i tell them that i'm pushing 3 for english
needless to say they don't like me much
thanks for the heads up to everyone Kathy :)
pamela
http://journals.aol.com/his1desire/GirlsHeadNoise
I also got this e-mail... and sent out a warning to evryone I know on AOL... some of my friends aren't that "tech savvy" and I didn't want them accidently going to the site. You have to be soooo careful. I NEVER link to anything like that from the e-mail. I always bring up my IE an link the the site with the address _I_ type in. Then I know I'm where I'm supposed to be <g>
http://journals.aol.com/astaryth/AdventuresofanEclecticMind/entries/312
Thanks for writing about this...it seems to have hit alot of us in the past few days...it makes you nervous when they say your account will be terminated..hope others didn't give information....Sandi http://journals.aol.com/sdoscher458/LifeIsFullOfSurprises
Sorry to say this but it seems AOL could have warned all its users about this problem. But I guess as long as they get their money each month they are happy little campers.
JG.
You aren't the only one whose received this bogus email. Sammie did too and I'm betting others have as well. If you look even closer...there are typos in the email. I'm too analytical not to notice things like that, not to mention being a medical transcriptionist I have to pay attention to everything! I hope they get this &$*#$&*(@ idiot!
Hugs, Trina
{{{{{ Kathy }}}}},
I got that email too. I read it at work and sent them a reply to try and trick someone else. I tossed them and spammed them. I always expect an official AOL email symbol to show up with any mail in my Inbox from AOL. It's a shame people try to scam people and steal from people...it's a sad statement on what's going on in our society. Thanks for sharing and warning J-Land.
Vivian
I got the email aslo. I reported it as spam but should have forwarded it to TOS. I am sure it wills till get the attention it needs as "spam" right?
Cheryl
I got that email too, they try to get our billing information this way. I just send it to Tos. Also watch out for the 1800 flowers billing, I received an email that looked legit but I never ordered flowers so I called 1800 flowers and they thanked me for notifying them and I was not the only one. Since we shop online these days and it is holiday time, call the company rather than responding by email, the companies do not bill anyone via email. Have a wonderful Holiday Season ! Susan
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